1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an ink composition for ink jet textile printing and a textile printing method using the same.
2. Related Art
An ink jet recording method is a method in which printing is performed by discharging small droplets of ink from fine nozzle heads to be flown and by adhering the small droplets of ink on a recording medium such as paper. The method has a feature that images with a high-resolution and a high-quality can be printed at a high speed using a relatively inexpensive apparatus. In an ink composition used in such an ink jet recording method, various coloring materials or solvents are used according to a recording medium used.
For example, JP-A-2003-12976 discloses that an ink composition used when an image is printed on plain paper contains a reactive dye, an organic solvent, water, a surfactant, and the like. In the ink composition disclosed in JP-A-2003-12976, an organic solvent such as ethylene glycol or glycerin is used from the viewpoint of ink storage stability and permeability to a recording medium.
On the other hand, JP-A-2002-241639 discloses that an ink composition used when an image is printed on a fabric (so-called ink jet textile printing) contains a reactive dye, a hydrophilic organic solvent,
tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane, water, and the like. In the ink composition disclosed in JP-A-2002-241639, a hydrophilic organic solvent such as propylene glycol or 2-pyrrolidone is used from the viewpoint of preventing occurrence of solids by drying.
However, in a case of using the ink composition described in JP-A-2003-12976 and JP-A-2002-241639 in ink jet textile printing, there is a case where occurrence of discharging failure of the ink discharged from the nozzles of a recording head cannot be sufficiently suppressed. Specifically, there are cases where it is not possible to sufficiently dissolve a dye depending on the type of a solvent, and when using a solvent having a low boiling point, the ink adhered near the nozzles solidifies, or when using a solvent having a high boiling point, the ink adhered near the nozzles thickens. In this manner, depending on the boiling point or the type of the solvent included in the ink composition, clogging of the nozzles may occur, and due to this, discharging failure of an ink may be caused.
In addition, in a case of performing ink jet textile printing, there is a case of performing heat treatment such as steaming after forming an image in order to improve a dyeing property of the dye applied to a fabric. However, depending on the boiling point or the type of the solvent included in the ink composition, dyeing of a dye may be inhibited during the heat treatment, and deterioration in coloring properties of an image may become more significant.
Meanwhile, when expressing a desired tone using an ink composition, one dye may be used, however, in order to further improve color reproduction, a plurality of dyes may be used in combination. However, since dyes having a wide variety of tones may be present, there may be cases in which it is difficult to find a combination of dyes having excellent color reproducibility. In particular, in the case of expressing a black tone, it is necessary to make the recorded image be close to an achromatic color, however, it is very difficult to find a combination of such dyes.